On constructing the image of Chinatown in Lao She’s Mr. Ma and Son (1929), Lin Yutang’s Chinatown Family (1948) and Liang Xiaosheng’s Fathers and Sons (2022)

Chinatowns are well known globally as cultural landscapes associated with Chinese migrants and their history. This paper situates Chinatown narratives in the context of Chinese literature through three examples: Mr. Ma and Son (1929), Chinatown Family (1948) and Fathers and Sons (2022). Lao She’s Mr. Ma and Son takes a ‘bystander’ viewpoint, exposing both Western stereotypes of Chinese people and Chinese misconceptions of Westerners in London Chinatown, while simultaneously addressing the urgent need among Chinese people for a Chinese renewal in the early 20th century. Lin Yutang’s Chinatown Family adopts the view of ‘dreamers’ in New York Chinatown narrative, aiming to construct a democratic ‘utopia’ in the post-World War II era. In the 21st century, Liang Xiaosheng’s Fathers and Sons innovates the Chinatown narrative through the transnational ‘sojourners’ focusing on Chinese immigrants’ contributions and close ties with China. To better understand how Chinese literary texts interweave the narrative of ‘looking at self’ and ‘looking around the world at others’ in constructing the image of Chinatown, this paper observes how Chinese cultural identity is formed, reshaped, and reinterpreted across transcultural contexts till the 21st century.